SONNET CXVI | On: Love
Me & Shakespeare on Love
If no one special has wished you a Happy Valentine’s Day, let me not be remiss in doing that. Happy Valentine's Day!
I also hope you have all the love you deserve this day and always. Most importantly, I hope you FEEL loved, and that you’re able to express it freely in return. So, in the spirit of this well-meaning but over-commercialized holiday celebration of love, I will share my favorite words of expression of love from one of the best writers we know – Shakespeare.
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
My Thoughts
It’s almost cliché to say “this is my favorite Shakespeare sonnet” because if you love his work or sonnets in general, then this may very well be at the top of your list. He has a lot to say on the topic of affection, but here’s my interpretation on his words here:
I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why minds that truly love each other shouldn’t be joined together. The truth is, love isn’t really love if it changes upon the revelation of it’s beloved flaws. Love is not love if it disappears in the absence of the beloved. Oh no, love is a constant and unchanging light. It shines bright in storms without being shaken; it is the star that guides the lost and wandering vessel. And like a star, its value is beyond what you can measure, though its height may be measurable.
Love does not succumb to the power or constraints of time, though time has the power to destroy rosy lips and cheeks - the vanities that we falsely associate with love. Love does not alter with the passage of brief hours and weeks, but lasts through and until the days of the darkest doom. If I’m wrong about this and can be proven wrong, then I never said anything worthy, and no man ever loved.
Though idealistic, I love Shakespeare's take on love as it describes it in its truest unconditional form. It definitely describes how loved I feel by God (the universe - source), and it’s the kind of love YOU are worthy of. So, whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s day alone, romantically, platonically, or with family, I hope you’re with someone who makes you feel worthy of love. Not because you’re without imperfections, flaws or shortcomings, but because you are worthy just as you are.
Happy Valentine's day ❤️✨
Updated from original post here